Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Laura
1944, 88m
A nostalgic b/w murder mystery with sufficient twists and turns and swinging of the needle of suspicion to keep one glued till the last bullet is fired.
Quoting Roger Ebert:
"That “Laura” continues to weave a spell -- and it does -- is a tribute to style over sanity...the whole film is of a piece: contrived, artificial, mannered, and yet achieving a kind of perfection in its balance between low motives and high style."
Trailer
A nostalgic b/w murder mystery with sufficient twists and turns and swinging of the needle of suspicion to keep one glued till the last bullet is fired.
Quoting Roger Ebert:
"That “Laura” continues to weave a spell -- and it does -- is a tribute to style over sanity...the whole film is of a piece: contrived, artificial, mannered, and yet achieving a kind of perfection in its balance between low motives and high style."
Trailer
Monday, May 20, 2013
My Life to Live
Godard, 1962
Divided into twelve brief episodes accompanied by narration, starring Godard's wife, the film chronicles the life of a streetwalker. This is a poignant, compassionate film, about a person distinguished only by her ordinariness.
Quoting Ebert:
"With her porcelain skin, her wary eyes, her helmet of shiny black hair, her chic outfits, always smoking, hiding her feelings, she is a young woman of Paris......She plays pinball. She works in a record store. She needs money. She tries to steal her flat key.....but is caught and frog-marched to the street, her arm twisted behind her. She has no home and no money. Is this her fault, or fate? Why did she leave Paul? Has she no feelings for her child?"
Divided into twelve brief episodes accompanied by narration, starring Godard's wife, the film chronicles the life of a streetwalker. This is a poignant, compassionate film, about a person distinguished only by her ordinariness.
Quoting Ebert:
"With her porcelain skin, her wary eyes, her helmet of shiny black hair, her chic outfits, always smoking, hiding her feelings, she is a young woman of Paris......She plays pinball. She works in a record store. She needs money. She tries to steal her flat key.....but is caught and frog-marched to the street, her arm twisted behind her. She has no home and no money. Is this her fault, or fate? Why did she leave Paul? Has she no feelings for her child?"
Sunday, April 28, 2013
The Mill and the Cross
"......the camera pulls back, blending scores of actors and animals with computer-generated effects....to restage Bruegel’s 1564 canvas, “The Way to Calvary.”.....peddlers sell their wares; musicians play crude instruments; woodsmen chop down trees.....a young couple take their calf to market, only for the man to be set upon by soldiers, then strapped to a wheel ....".....NY Times
Quote from Ebert
".....here is a film before which words fall silent....."The Mill and the Cross" contains little dialogue.......if you see no more than the opening shots, you will never forget them....it opens on a famous painting, and within the painting, figures move and walk.....towering above is an extraordinary sight: a craggy pinnacle, topped by a huge grain mill, its sails revolving....at the bottom a helter-skelter stairway that zigzags into the shadows above.....its massive wheels grind."
TRAILER
OLD REVIEW
Thursday, April 25, 2013
The Death of Ivan Illyich
Leo Tolstoi, 1886
Ivan Illyich is a 45 year old magistrate; an ordinary person enjoying his family and social life. He is struck by an unknown disease, and confronted with the agonizing reality of impending demise. The latter half of the novella minutely describes his mental state in the four months when he is hurtled from oblivious normalcy to unceasing suffering. As Tolstoi says, his troubles build up like "a stone accelerating as it falls towards the earth", or in "inverse square to his distance from death". Tolstoi was in his fifties, undergoing a spiritual crisis, but hail and hearty, and the book cannot be based on his own experience. The most intriguing aspect of the story is the sheer ordinariness of Ivan. There is a radical transformation as he confronts the mystery and fear associated with death. Death is a leveler not only subsequently but also in the antecedent experience. To quote a contemporary philosopher;
"Learning, genius, power, wealth, reputation, science, technology --- all become nothing when one is confronted by death. Faced with his end, man finds himself hopelessly overpowered, and there is nothing able to salve his conscience."
TEXT
Ivan Illyich is a 45 year old magistrate; an ordinary person enjoying his family and social life. He is struck by an unknown disease, and confronted with the agonizing reality of impending demise. The latter half of the novella minutely describes his mental state in the four months when he is hurtled from oblivious normalcy to unceasing suffering. As Tolstoi says, his troubles build up like "a stone accelerating as it falls towards the earth", or in "inverse square to his distance from death". Tolstoi was in his fifties, undergoing a spiritual crisis, but hail and hearty, and the book cannot be based on his own experience. The most intriguing aspect of the story is the sheer ordinariness of Ivan. There is a radical transformation as he confronts the mystery and fear associated with death. Death is a leveler not only subsequently but also in the antecedent experience. To quote a contemporary philosopher;
"Learning, genius, power, wealth, reputation, science, technology --- all become nothing when one is confronted by death. Faced with his end, man finds himself hopelessly overpowered, and there is nothing able to salve his conscience."
TEXT
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